Those responsible for weight-loss surgeries want to make the claim that the decline in weight-loss surgeries is because other, more urgent, types of surgery are given higher priority. But perhaps the real reason is different?

Perhaps more and more people are beginning to question the health benefits of such mass and indiscriminate surgery. There is no disease where the surgeons operate. Healthy organs are cut out. Healthy stomachs and healthy intestines are surgically removed with disconcerting routine.

Solutions this extreme can’t be necessary for more than a small minority. There must be more natural solutions for most people.

Weight-loss surgery is the ultimate proof of how the health-care system has failed miserably to deal with the obesity problem – a panic button. It’s not a long-term solution and perhaps more and more are starting to understand this. If this is the case the decrease is good news! Continue Reading →

The outdated fear-mongering propaganda claiming that a dramatically increased butter consumption in Sweden has also increased the incidence of heart disease is once again crushed by reality.

New statistics from TheSwedish National Board of Health and Welfare show the exact opposite. The incidence of heart attacks in Sweden keeps plummeting, for both men and women, just as they have done since 2005. We are becoming healthier, despite eating more and more butter.

As modern science time and time again has shown that a low-fat diet doesn’t do anything good for heart health, nobody should be surprised. But there are definitely people that need to update their knowledge.

Above is the butter consumption in Sweden (yellow line) in relation to statistics on heart disease (blue + purple). The axis for butter consumption is to the right.

A growing number of health care professionals recognize that the old advice on a low-fat, high-carb diet has been an embarrassing mistake. Here’s another one, chief physician Ulf Rosenqvist, Medical Specialist Clinic, Motala, Sweden. Here’s a quote:

It’s confusing when suddenly the truth no longer holds. It’s been taken as dogmatic faith that one should eat according to the MyPlate Guidelines. All health care professionals have been indoctrinated in this…

Now it’s time for forget the Swedish version of the MyPlate guidelines (very similar to the current US version) and aim for richer foods again, he says.

The Food Revolution is on a roll! Here’s the full article translated into English:

This was a historic day, that will certainly have an impact on the future treatment of obesity in Sweden. As a bonus the news produced a major visitor record for my Swedish blog: over 73,000 visitors in one day. Not bad in a small country!

Above you can see the number of daily visits to Kostdoktorn.se since the start in 2007. The number of visitors is increasing and the website is already one of Sweden’s most read blogs, all categories included. But I think this is just the beginning.

More and more people are spreading the knowledge. Together we’ll make great things happen. In Sweden, and around the world.

Below is an excellent article from local Swedish paper Corren about this week’s SBU report showing that low-carb diets are superior for weight loss. It’s particularly pleasing to see so many wise comments from Professor Fredrik Nyström, who was a member of the expert group of the SBU.

For Fredrik Nyström the report represents a victory.

– Absolutely. I’ve been working with this for so long. It feels great to have this scientific report, and that the skepticism towards low-carb diets among my colleagues has disappeared during the course of the work. When all recent scientific studies are lined up the result is indisputable: our deep-seated fear of fat is completely unfounded. You don’t get fat from fatty foods, just as you don’t get atherosclerosis from calcium or turn green from green vegetables.

The time has come for the health care system to learn how to advise patients on a low-carbohydrate diet.